Anton Spivack: Artist Profile

All About Solo's Editorial Team recently caught up with Anton Spivack, star of Functions, to learn about his journey through the world of solo theatre.

Tickets are available for Functions on March 21 at 2:00 pm at United Solo's 20th Annual Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row in New York City.

Get tickets here.

What drew you to solo theatre for this particular piece?

You mean this festival? I didn’t know about it until I found out that an actress of whom I’ve become a fan (Lindsey Normington from Anora) did this years ago and got an award for it. It sounded like a prominent festival and I thought it would be a good fit. As for doing the play as a solo piece, I had originally written it as a series of monologues, and then decided to do it as a solo play, where I could do all the characters as I was familiar with them.

Describe your show in 6 words

Struggling writer pushing forty seeks connection.

Your show is about a “mathematically-inclined playwright on the autism spectrum” What do mathematics and theatre have in common?

I would say both involve communication to make a point. Conveying a message is not much different from writing a mathematical proof, it takes effort to present something that convinces others. Also like math, writing a play takes logic and structure, and has rhythm and patterns.

Over the course of the show your character finds that while the world is not as orderly as mathematics, connections can occur in unlikely places. What is the importance of connections both for your character in “Functions” and for you as an artist.

My character, based on the experience I had, feels out of place often, especially in his own family. He’s trying to connect, but struggles to be understood, and the fact that his former theatre company, his main social circle before the pandemic, has essentially blacklisted him, makes him even more alone, and being quarantined due to COVID didn’t help. For me, theatre is truly a collaborative art form and even as a solo show we can’t do it alone. We need people who understand our vision and try to help us in our art, like my director Mudra is doing, pushing me to bring out the best performance.

Where would you like to see “Functions” go from here?

I’m doing another theatre festival in the summer, and hopefully will be able to get enough of a crowd to do a major production, with a professional company, perhaps in a larger theatre. 

Functions

March 21, 2026 at 2:00 pm

United Solo Theatre Festival

Theatre Row, New York City